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Can anything quite compare with last night? Davis flirts with perfection - well, "takes perfection out on a date, but refuses to enter a committed relationship," might be closer to the truth - and Romero saves the day with a play of the year candidate, as well as driving in two-thirds of our runs.
I'm curious to see if the stirring victory has any kind of impact going forward: my instinct is, probably not, and we have an interesting control to look at. The same two pitchers met each other on July 4th, in a game that followed perhaps our most stirring win of the season - the Matinee Miracle against the Brewers. But the Diamondbacks came out flat, being no-hit by Baek until two outs in the sixth inning - a combination of inept defense with lackluster offense and poor bullpen work sent us to a 5-1 defeat.
That was the only loss Dan Haren has suffered since the end of May. He has given the Diamondbacks ten quality starts in a row - allowing one or zero earned runs in six of those - with a K:BB ratio of 68:13 and an ERA of 1.39. He now leads the league in both WHIP and ERA. Little wonder the team are attempting to extend his contract beyond the current 2010 - the trade with Oakland looks like one of those rare ones where both sides are going to be very happy with the outcome.
As noted, we struggled against Baek previously, and that was in a more hitter-friendly park. However, that was part of a five-game streak where we scored only eight runs in total and hit .179. We seem to have got that out of our system, batting .292 over the last five, and I am more optimistic about our chances tonight, as we are playing significantly better in the games leading up to it. A win, particularly coupled with a Dodgers loss, would be a nice way to set things up for the upcoming, crucial series in LA.
After a couple of games where I've been conspicuous in the Gameday Thread by my absence, I should have my technological ducks in a row this evening, and look forward to commenting a bit more. May be slightly late in arriving, as after work, I first need to go make some purchases for Mrs. SnakePit's birthday tomorrow [yes, I am a Last-minute Larry! I find desperation works wonders for my powers of inspiration in the present-buying arena...]. I will thus be coming homer poorer but, hopefully, laden with gifts...